20120902

God is smiling

The hunger strike of three students in
protest against the government’s plan to implement the controversial
National Education curriculum ended prematurely after the blood sugar level of
one of the students was found to be very low. The hunger strike, which was
supposed to be for 72 hours, ended at midnight after having gone on for 56
hours.

The student whose health condition was
at stake was apologetic, saying that she would have liked to persist until the
last moment as she had pledged.

Tears welled in my eyes as I saw her say
that on TV. I don’t
know whether they were tears of sympathy or tears of shame. As I said in an SMS
to a friend:

“Those
Scholarism [the student activist group to which the three students belong] kids
deserve our utmost respect. For them to sacrifice themselves like that is both
heart-rending and soul-searching. Shouldn’t we
adults be ashamed of ourselves?”

A positive development is that ten
citizens, ranging from tertiary students to retirees, have now gone on their
hunger strike and taken up the fight with the government.

At the venue of yesterday’s
assembly, which was reported to be attended by 40,000 people, a double rainbow
stretched across the sky. Obviously, it was God’s
way of giving the movement His encouragement and approval.